Young Adult Graduates Living in the Parental Home: Expectations, Negotiations, and Parental Financial Support

In the United Kingdom and the United States, significant numbers of university graduates live with their parents, but little is known about expectations regarding parental support. This article focuses on a sample of British middle-class families and their coresident young adult children. It explores the extent to which parents and their graduate children have consistent expectations regarding coresidence and financial support and how such support is negotiated. Fifty-four in-depth interviews with parents and adult children were conducted. The findings reveal that expectations regarding coresidence were broadly consistent across parents and graduate children. Furthermore, within families, there was broad consistency regarding expectations of financial support, although there was variation between families. The nature and ways in which financial arrangements were negotiated varied between families, between parents, and between children. Expectations appear to be shaped by the child’s circumstances and norms, with negotiations of different types enabling a way forward to be agreed.